Biography

Tim is a prehistorian with a strong international public profile. He leads research projects and publishes widely on the archaeology of early farming communities in northwest Europe and on archaeological resource management. He has undertaken pioneering research into the history and development of Stonehenge and other related Neolithic monuments. His research takes him to many parts of Europe, and he has directed projects in Germany, Russia, Greece, Malta, England, Wales, and the Isle of Man in order to answer key questions: Why were ceremonial monuments first constructed? What role did material culture such as pottery and stone play in the lives of Neolithic communities? And what symbolic meanings did particular materials have for those who selected and used them? The central issue here is how people understood, structured, and occupied the landscapes they created for themselves. It is an issue that also has contemporary relevance and informs his research into the role of the past in shaping places and people’s lives today...

Tim holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Southampton. He is a member of the Historic England Advisory Committee, a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Cotswold Archaeology, a Fellow and former Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of London, a member of the Nomination Committee of the European Association of Archaeologists, and a member and former Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute. He is on the editorial board of the journal Time and Mind , and series editor of the Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers. In 2006 he won the National Award for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage of Russia presented by the Russian Archaeological Heritage Foundation. He was appointed OBE in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘Services to Archaeology’.

In his spare time, Tim enjoys walking and music; he plays guitar in a rock-blues band.

Research

My research focuses on two main themes. First, is the Neolithic of northwest Europe, the era of the first farmers between 5000 and 2000 BC, and in particular the early development, use, and meaning of monumental architecture such as the long barrows, enclosures and stone temples that these communities built. Second, is archaeological resource management, especially the role of the tangible and intangible heritage as sources of social capital, cultural enrichment, personal well-being, and the social construction of knowledge.

Both themes are explored through a series of connected projects that include collaborations with other research institutions at home and abroad, partnerships with professional and governmental bodies, and teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Darvill, T., 2015. Grismond’s Tower, Cirencester, and the rise of springhead super-mounds in the Cotswolds and beyond. Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 132, 11-27.

Books

Darvill, T., 2016. A Research Framework for the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site. Research Activity in the Stonehenge Landscape 2005-2012. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology and Historic England.

Darvill, T., 1986. The archaeology of the uplands: A rapid assessment of archaeological knowledge and practice. London: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England & Council for British Archaeology.

Darvill, T. and Batarda Fernandes, A.P., 2014. Open-air rock-art preservation and conservation: A current state of affairs. In: Darvill, T. and Batarda Fernandes, A.P., eds. Open-air rock-art conservation and management: State of the art and future perspectives. New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 1-16.

Darvill, T., 2014. Approaches to the conservation and management of open-air rock-art panels in England, United Kingdom. In: Darvill, T. and Batarda Fernandes, A.P., eds. Open-air rock-art conservation and management: State of the art and future perspectives. New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 17-37.

Darvill, T., 2009. Reeling in the years: the past in the present. In: Hunter, J. and Ralston, I., eds. The archaeology of Britain: An introduction from earliest times to the twenty-first century. London: Routledge, 410-432.

Darvill, T., 2006. Early Prehistory. In: Holbrook, N. and Juřica, J., eds. Twenty Five Years of Archaeology in Gloucestershire: A Review of New Discoveries and New Thinking in Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, and Bristol 1979–2004. Cirencester, England: Cotswold Archaeological Trust, 5-60.

Darvill, T., 2004. Tales of the Land, Tales of the Sea: People and Presence in the Neolithic of Man and Beyond. In: Cummings, V. and Fowler, C., eds. The Neolithic of the Irish Sea. Materiality and Traditions of Practice. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 46-54.

Darvill, T., 2003. The land of the Dobunni. In: Ecclestone, M., Gardner, K., Holbrook, N. and Smith, A., eds. The land of the Dobunni: papers submitted to symposia organised by the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society's Committee for Archaeology in Gloucestershire, & the Council for British Archaeology South-West. King's Lynn: Heritage Marketing and Publications, 2-11.

Darvill, T., 2002. White on Blonde: Quartz Pebbles and the Use of Quartz at Neolithic Monuments in the Isle of Man and Beyond. In: Jones, A. and MacGregor, G., eds. Colouring the Past: The Significance of Colour in Archaeological Research. Oxford: Berg, 73-93.

Darvill, T. and Gojda, M., 2001. One land, Many Landscapes: An Introduction. In: Darvill, T. and Gojda, M., eds. One Land, Many Landscapes:: papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists' Fifth Annual Meeting in Bournemouth 1999. Oxford: Archaeopress, 1-2.

Darvill, T., 2001. Traditions of Landscape Archaeology in Britain: Issues of Time and Scale. In: Darvill, T. and Gojda, M., eds. One Land, Many Landscapes:: papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists' Fifth Annual Meeting in Bournemouth 1999. Oxford: Archaeopress, 33-46.

Chartrand, J.A.H., 1999. The Cerne Giant: A Place in Space. In: Darvill, T., ed. The Cerne Giant : an antiquity on trial : three cases presented to an enquiry convened to consider the origin of the Cerne Giant, held in Cerne Abbas Village Hall, Dorset, on 23rd March 1996. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2-7.

John Grigsby (2013-2017). Temples and Twins: In search for an Indo-European mythological context for the shape and form of Stonehenge and other ritual sites of Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland

Kate Mason (2016-2020). Bad to the Bone: an analysis of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains from the later third and early second millennium BC context in the Stonehendge landscape

2014e. 28 April 2014. ‘Beyond Newark: Stonehenge and prehistoric ceremonial centres in the Old and New Worlds’. Local Life Lecture, Bryn Du Mansion, Granville, Licking County, Ohio, and Newark Earthwork Centre, Ohio State University, Ohio, USA.

2011c. 19 October 2011. Wareham and District Archaeology and Local History Society, Wareham Middle School, Wareham, Dorset, UK. A tomb with a view… Cotswold Severn Long barrows.

2011b. 23 November 2011. SUBU BUnique Week, Bournemouth University, Dorset, UK. Right Here, Right Now: archaeology in the world of rock and roll.

2011a. 7 December 2011. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Merlin’s Magic Circles: Stonehenge and the Preseli Bluestones. See online version at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aub6DPM2pU

The Prehistoric Society Europa Conference: The Origins of Monumentality, Sticks and stones and broken bones: rethinking early monumentality in England and Wales, 29 May 2015, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland